Knitters Making Poppies for War Anniversary

Knitters in Australia and beyond are being called upon to create knit poppies that will be used to decorate the Australian War Memorial to mark the centenary of the ending of World War I next November.

The group 5,000 Poppies, which has been around for four years and has collected knit and crocheted poppies for various events, is making a big push in 2018 for two different projects. The first is to produce 50,000 lapel poppies by April 2018 for the Victorian RSL for their 2018 Poppy Appeal. A post on the group’s Facebook page said they had 20,000 already finished.

The second project is to plant poppies at the war memorial to represent each Australian who died in World War I. That’s about 62,000, and they have 18,000 to 20,000 finished (as of February). The poppies for this project are due by August of next year and can be mailed to the war memorial or to 5,000 Poppies directly (see the link above for addresses).

They have patterns that can be used to make the poppies, and they need to be worked tightly so they will look good in a lapel or on display, and the poppies for the war memorial need to be able to withstand the elements because they will be on display outdoors for five weeks. I also have a collection of knit poppy patterns that would be great for this purpose.

This is a lovely project and a great way to use some red yarn from your stash in the cause of remembrance and peace.